Sir William Henry Bragg - Biography

Sir William Henry Bragg Biography The Nobel Prize in

Physics 1915
William Henry Bragg was born at Presentation Speech
Westward, Cumberland, on July 2,
1862. He was educated at Market William Bragg
Harborough Grammar School and Biography
afterwards at King William's Swedish Nobel Stamps
College, Isle of Man. Elected a
minor scholar of Trinity College, Lawrence Bragg
Cambridge, in 1881, he studied Biography
mathematics under the well-known Nobel Lecture
Swedish Nobel Stamps
teacher, Dr. E. J. Routh. He was
Third Wrangler in the Mathematical
Tripos, Part I, in June 1884, and
was placed in the first class in Part
II in the following January. He 1914 1916
studied physics in the Cavendish Laboratory during part of
The 1915 Prize in:
1885, and at the end of that year was elected to the Physics
Professorship of Mathematics and Physics in the University of Chemistry
Adelaide, South Australia. Subsequently he became successively Physiology or Medicine
Cavendish Professor of Physics at Leeds (1909-1915), Quain Literature
Professor of Physics at University College London (1915-1925), Peace
and Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution.
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His research interests embraced a great many topics and he was
an adept at picking up a subject, almost casually, making an Name
important contribution, then dropping it again. However, the
work of Bragg and his son Lawrence in 1913-1914 founded a
new branch of science of the greatest importance and
significance, the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-
rays. If the fundamental discovery of the wave aspect of X-rays,
as evidenced by their diffraction in crystals, was due to von
Laue and his collaborators, it is equally true that the use of X-
rays as an instrument for the systematic revelation of the way
in which crystals are built was entirely due to the Braggs. This
was recognized by the award of the Nobel Prize jointly to father
and son in 1915.

During the First World War, Bragg was put in charge of research
on the detection and measurement of underwater sounds in
connection with the location of submarines. It was probably in
acknowledgement of his work, as well as of his scientific
eminence, that Bragg was made a C.B.E. in 1917 and was
knighted in 1920. The Order of Merit followed in 1931. After
having been a Fellow since 1907, he was elected President of

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Sir William Henry Bragg - Biography

the Royal Society in 1935.

He was an honorary doctor of some sixteen universities, and a

member of the leading foreign societies. Many other medals and
awards were bestowed upon him among which may be
mentioned the Rumford Medal in 1916 and the Copley Medal (its
premier award) in 1930.

He was the author of many books, including Studies in

Radioactivity; X-Rays and Crystal Structure; The World of
Sound; Concerning the Nature of Things; Old Trades and New
Knowledge; An Introduction to Crystal Analysis, and The
Universe of Light. His favorite recreation was golf.

In 1889 he married Gwendoline Todd, daughter of Sir Charles

Todd, F.R.S., Postmaster General and Government Astronomer
of South Australia. Their son William Lawrence Bragg shared the
Nobel Prize with his father.

After a life of astonishing productiveness, Sir William Bragg died

on March 10, 1942.

From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921.

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